The Beauty of a Routine

No, I don’t have any pictures up yet…the walls are still bare and there are still things we need to buy to make our home feel complete.

But.

Charlie has gone to sleep before 10:00 five nights in a row.

Our choice to co-sleep has presented us with a little bit of a conundrum.

Yes, that means we sleep in the same bed as Charlie, and no, we haven’t crushed him. I know there is a huge controversy on this subject, and I’m sure many of you reading this will not agree with our decision. Please know that we’ve got our reasons behind this choice, and we’ve been doing it intentionally and safely.
What this means, however, is that the option of training Charlie into a bedtime isn’t nearly as easy for us. We don’t have a crib that will contain him. If we tried to lay him down in bed and then go about our business, he’d walk out and look at us like we were poor, stupid children.

There is hope, though. With Paul going back to school, we have had no choice but to start working on a routine. The last 3 months in our old apartment turned us into a lazy, unorganized, emotionally scattered family. Things are going to be very different this time around.

Our new apartment is quite close to some very nice parks. Charlie and I have started going to these parks once a day, and the difference has been spectacular. We play for about an hour and half and by the time we get home, he’s ready to have a snack and take a nap. I know this may seem like an obvious solution, but the park next to our old apartment wasn’t great, and we just didn’t do this every day.

We used to just let Charlie tell us when he’s ready for a bath, but sometimes that wouldn’t happen till 9:45, 10:00.
As it turns out, Charlie’s always ready for a bath. We just have to put forth the suggestion.

So, with a “Charlie, do you want a bath?” Charlie’s off like a shot, knocking on the bathroom door, ready to jump in the tub fully clothed at about 8:30. (I might mention here that while one of us is monitoring the bath, the other is sweeping and vacuuming…nice, huh?) After some cartoon/drying-off/snuggle time, Charlie’s ready for bed.

And it’s beautiful. And I’m slightly terrified of this routine falling apart.

The thing about a routine is, though, that you’re supposed to be able to come back to it…even if you have a change in schedule. That’s what we need to work on mentally. Just because things were different for a few days (vacation, family visiting, etc…), it doesn’t mean you can’t jump right back in to what you were doing previously. You just have to accept that things were different for a bit, and there’s no reason why you can’t hop back on the horse.

So, yeah. I’m working on that.

Have you guys had any routine revelations? Something that works well? Better yet, if you’re co-sleeping, do you have any suggestions?

A quick note…I wrote this last week, and since then, we’ve had a schedule change, a couple of 10:30 nights, and are finally back to normal. It’s good to know that it’s possible to get back on track!